This discussion reminds me of the difficulty some people have in identifying harassment, because the same behavior can be perceived entirely differently depending on who is doing it. I once had a somewhat lecherous boss who was in the habit of coming up behind female staff and kneading their shoulders (think GW Bush and Angela Merkel). It was all you could do to keep from giving him an elbow in the stomach and saying "Get your hands off me!" I later had another boss, a great guy, who would come up and knead your shoulders in a completely friendly fashion (he did this to either males or females). No hackles rose.
The first guy would no doubt use the second guy as a defense to try to prove he didn't mean anything by his actions (or that women are oversensitive), but in fact the two individuals came across completely differently to the recipient, based on their overall behavior, not just this one action of kneading shoulders.

PZ Myers is a Minnesota zoologist who studies squid professionally, and who also blogs at Pharyngula as a scientist, skeptical atheist, and opponent of creationism. He has also demonstrated that he is a mensch. PZ demonstrated menschlichkeit as the atheist/skeptic/rationalist blogosphere has *ex...

Actual conversation heard between two guys I knew in college (at a state university) in the 1960's:
"We should go visit the University of Chicago some weekend. The girls there are all atheists, and they'll have sex with ANYBODY."
Some guys may still be under this impression.

PZ Myers is a Minnesota zoologist who studies squid professionally, and who also blogs at Pharyngula as a scientist, skeptical atheist, and opponent of creationism. He has also demonstrated that he is a mensch. PZ demonstrated menschlichkeit as the atheist/skeptic/rationalist blogosphere has *ex...

When our first child turned one, we went to an art fair, where we encountered the parents of a child newly turned two. They told us, "You think the first year is amazing, but wait until the second year, when they start talking." We couldn't believe anything would be more exciting than the first year, but they were right. Keep enjoying! (Said child is probably about your age now, and we are still enjoying her and the others.)

by Jacob Davies What was I saying about no crawling? Yeah, that didn't last. Crawling, standing... nothing is safe any more. I'm not saying everyone should go have a baby right now... but I am saying this is the most fun I've ever had. Anyway, an open thread.

Whenever anti-evolution or intelligent design types talk about the wonders of the human body and how it had to be divinely designed, mental illness is my counter-example. What kind of god would design a brain with such terrible potential deficiencies, and all the pain they cause? My thoughts are with you in your struggle.

by Eric Martin Attention Greater Obsidian Wings Community: I've never asked you for anything on a personal level - no donations, no gifts, not wish lists. Nada. Today, I'm looking to cash in my entire pile of chits. One of our own, the recently out-of-sight Gary Farber, has hit a particularly...

My main argument with the stimulus is not the timing, because as almost everyone above points out, the effects of this recession are long-lasting. Mine is with the lack of impact on jobs.
Construction jobs in our area are about to shut down for the winter, and current employees are working a lot of overtime, but new people have not been hired. Extending unemployment benefits is fine but doesn't help people find jobs (and encourages some people not to bother looking).
It bothers me that while banks and investment firms seem to be doing fine and are able to pay big bonuses again, too many people have lost jobs and can't find a new one.

.... Of calling the Democrats' stimulus package A Stimulus for Tomorrow (Part 11) by von Andrew Sullivan mentions a piece by Daniel Gross, which purportedly reminds "conservatives"* that it's too early to label the stimulus a failure because most of the money hasn't been spent yet. Here is my ha...

Yes, it was annoying that when Rumsfeld first used the phrase he was credited with originating it, and to have Scalia corroborate his "coinage" just increases the aggravation.
I too thought it was an insightful phrase when I first heard it, and I wish I could remember when that was, but it also unrelated to aerospace. It might have come from the sciences somewhere.

by publius I'm in the process of summarizing some Supreme Court opinions for an appellate journal. And I came across what is perhaps the best passage in the history of Supreme Court opinions. It's Scalia writing in Republic of Iraq v. Beaty: But the whole value of a generally phrased residual...

Unfortunately I see the evidence of this in my own family. People who before 9/11 were traditional conservatives now believe that only Fox News and Rush are telling the truth.
For some reason, to be a conservative in this sense now, you have to believe in torture (even if you are a Christian) and you have to believe that global warming is a liberal hoax.
However, now that Bush is out of office, you can denounce anything about him that you did not like as him not being a "true Conservative". Cheney is the quintessential "true conservative", and Bush went wrong when he stopped listening to Cheney.
It's pretty scary that these people no longer think for themselves, and yet they believe that those of us who are liberals are the ones who are brainwashed.

by publius My views of Dick Cheney are hopefully clear by now. So I'm not getting into the immorality of his torture stance. But I don't think that "winning" the torture debate is his actual goal. To me, the goal of his recent charm offensive is simply to kick up enough dirt to force a "draw."...